TeamViewer was hacked by Chinese agents in 2016 and it’s only just been revealed

German-based remote control and desktop sharing software TeamViewer was compromised in 2016. It is reported that the hackers behind this cyber attack were of Chinese origin and used the Winnti Trojan malware. It was previously found that the activities of this malware were linked to the Chinese state intelligence system.

TeamViewer enjoyed immense popularity in the realm of desktop sharing and remote control. However, software such as TeamViewer is frequently the target of cyber attacks and it is necessary for such software companies to ensure a strict security practice in place.

The Winnti Trojan malware was active since 2010 and the Winniti Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group had previously launched several financial attacks in the past. Many software and gaming organizations of the US, Japan, and South Korea were victims of this group.

The hacker group primarily uses supply chain attacks whereby it infects legitimate software or servers with updates that install malware on the end user’s system. This way, once a system gets infected, the Winniti then downloads a backdoor payload on the system which lets an attacker remotely access the victim’s system without their knowledge.

…